County jails morphing to 'felony prisons'?

July 1, 2013

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 12:28 p.m.

1 of 3

Inmates line up to get their food and sit down at the start of dinner in a dining room capable of feeding 292 inmates at a time at the Theo Lacy Facility jail in Orange in 2012. After the state-mandated realignment began in 2011, county jails are becoming crammed with more, and more dangerous inmates. FILE PHOTO: STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

1 of 3

Commander Steve Kea of the Orange County Sheriff's Department addresses jail populations in 2011. "We knew all along that if you added 20 percent more inmates to the jail population, things like assaults and drug violations would go up,l" Kea said. "But they didn't go up proportionally. They went up exponentially." FILE PHOTO: JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 3

Deputies monitor inmates in high security lock-up at Theo Lacy Jail in Orange in 2011. FILE PHOTO: JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Inmates line up to get their food and sit down at the start of dinner in a dining room capable of feeding 292 inmates at a time at the Theo Lacy Facility jail in Orange in 2012. After the state-mandated realignment began in 2011, county jails are becoming crammed with more, and more dangerous inmates.FILE PHOTO: STEVEN GEORGES, FOR THE REGISTER

Behind bars

Factors other than population determine if a jail is overcrowded, the Orange County grand jury said. It considered:

Inmate violence

Racial tensions

Inmate age

Inmate health

Jail management

"The ability and outstanding work of the professionals at the Orange County Jails, more than compensates for any deficiency in the physical facilities. It should be noted that the jails are at a high capacity and overcrowding is an issue that does need attention."

Source: Orange County grand jury

First of two parts

Some Orange County jails are crammed with twice as many inmates as they should ideally hold – and many of these inmates are more violent and have more mental health and drug issues than in the past, according to a jarring probe by the Orange County grand jury.

For this, we largely have California's "realignment" process to thank. It shifted the housing and monitoring of thousands of convicts from the (more expensive and more crowded) state prisons to the (less expensive and less crowded) county jails, starting in October 2011.

The idea was to stop low-level offenders from incessantly cycling in and out of those expensive and crowded state prisons (more than two-thirds of them were returning), and get them closer to county-level health and social programs that might help them avoid lockup the next time around.

This experiment is still in its early phases, so it's unclear just how successful it's going to be. One thing, however, is quite clear: County officials fear that local jails, once stocked with more mild-mannered offenders, are morphing into "felony prisons," the grand jury found. To wit:

Realignment offenders had a much higher level of serious offenses than the county's garden-variety offenders (nearly 40 percent of the former were serving time for such offenses, compared with less than 19 percent of the latter).

Criminal reports for drug violations among inmates have dramatically increased since realignment began. In the year before realignment, drug violations were up 25 percent. In the year after realignment, they were up 108 percent.

Criminal reports for inmate assaults rose dramatically as well. Before realignment, assaults were up just 1 percent. As of fall of 2012, assaults jumped 48 percent.

Realignment offenders were disciplined at double the rate of other inmates.

Realignment is also taking a financial toll on Correctional Health Services – so severe that officials are eying stop-loss insurance to protect against spikes in hospitalization costs. "They are finding they must provide service and track long-term and non-life threatening medical conditions not previously treated due to short county jail stays," the grand jury wrote. "Of particular note is that it costs $85,000 per year to treat an inmate with Hepatitis C and there is a suspected 34 percent rate of infection in the (realignment) population."

Realignment offenders also had a higher rate of disabilities and mental issues, and were more likely to be second- and third-strikers, the grand jury found. They were, however, less suicidal than the average inmate. Go figure.

About one-fifth of the county jail's population – some 1,000 people – is made up of realignment inmates.

"Certainly this has been a cause of concern for us," sheriff's Cmdr. Steve Kea said. "We knew all along that if you added 20 percent more inmates to the jail population, things like assaults and drug violations would go up. But they didn't go up proportionally. They went up exponentially."

The realignment inmates have added a complex, criminally sophisticated element to the county jails, Kea said. It comes into play especially for parole violators.

"You're a robber, a rapist; you never go back to state prison. You go to county jail," Kea said. "That is our most complex, criminally sophisticated population."

The group representing the deputies agrees.

"The Orange County jail system has evolved into a much more dangerous and violent place, mimicking state prisons, as a more hardened brand of inmate is supplanting low-level offenders," said a written statement from Tom Dominguez, president of the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs.

In a 2008 review of the jails commissioned by Sheriff Sandra Hutchens and the Board of Supervisors, consulting firm Crout & Sida found that the jails were so understaffed that another 455 custody personnel were needed to ensure the safety and security of the system, Dominguez said.

Since then, the inmate population has only climbed, adding roughly 800 inmates to its average daily population, while staffing levels remain "dangerously inadequate," Dominguez said.

The county – and all the other counties in California – are learning as they go. Orange County is launching pilot programs to help transition such inmates more smoothly into the community, complete with education, living arrangements, group and individual therapy and health and social services. Kea holds out hope this will indeed help keep people from returning to jail again and again.

Tomorrow, we'll tell you more about the crowding situation. And next week, we'll tell you a bit more about the pay for jail personnel.

Despite its somewhat alarming findings, the report was not without levity. In the jail commissary, the top-selling items were ramen noodle soup, chili soup, picante beef soup, Cheetos and peanut butter, the grand jury found.

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.